Belarus was a convenient battleground for Polish and Russian armies between the 16th and 18th centuries.
The Russians retreated in 1812 when Napoleon's armies invaded, and the area never had a real chance to develop.
A Belarusian democratic republic was proclaimed after the collapse of the Russian Empire, but the Bolsheviks soon put a stop to that idea.
The country was again almost devastated during World War II, when the Germans were expelled.
Belarus also received the highest amount of nuclear fallout, of all the Soviet republics, from the Chernobyl disaster; across the border, in UKraine.
The capital of Belarus has been under Lithuanian, Polish and Russian
Belarus Information
